Harris County jail not the place to treat mental illness

It’s enough to make you crazyOur county jail is not the place to treat mental illness

In recent years, the Harris County Sheriff's Office and the Houston Police Department have improved the way their officers deal with situations involving individuals with mental illness. We have refined and increased training on mental health issues. We have reformed our policies to ensure that we are better prepared to properly handle these encounters.

For its role in the implementation of the Chronic Consumer Stabilization Initiative, designed to help the chronic mentally ill, the Houston Police Department was awarded the 2010 Community Policing Award by the International Association of Chiefs of Police and was named as a national learning site for specialized policing responses for mentally ill citizens by the United States Department of Justice. The Harris County Sheriff's Office has developed a mental health unit in its jail that serves as a model for local jails across the state.

Although we have made great progress in service to these citizens, we are still unable to change the fundamental fact that has forced local law enforcement into the role of de facto mental health professionals: People simply cannot get the treatment and services they need to lead stable, healthy lives.

Texas ranks 49th in the nation in per capita spending on mental health services. Only 25 percent of children and 18 percent of adults with severe mental illness and in need of services from the public mental health system in Harris County are able to receive them. Now, Texas lawmakers are looking to cut funding to the already overburdened public mental health system by $134 million for 2012-13.

Texas ranks 49th in the nation in per capita spending on mental health services. Only 25 percent of children and 18 percent of adults with severe mental illness and in need of services from the public mental health system in Harris County are able to receive them. Now, Texas lawmakers are looking to cut funding to the already overburdened public mental health system by $134 million for 2012-13.

As the heads of the two largest law enforcement agencies in the Houston area, we are extremely concerned that spending significantly less on mental health services for those most in need will result in far greater ramifications in the long term for state finances as well as the quality of life for all Texans. Funding cuts will directly affect public safety if officers are forced to deal with even more mental health crises rather than address other urgent calls for service. Moreover, many individuals with untreated mental illness who lack access to care end up cycling through the criminal justice system at a cost that is significantly higher to taxpayers than that of providing ongoing, community-based treatment and services.

A prime example of cost shifting has occurred within the Harris County Jail, now the largest mental health facility in Texas. The Harris County Jail treats more individuals with mental health issues on a daily basis than our state's 10 psychiatric hospitals combined. This is especially worrisome given that the United States Department of Justice reports that it costs 60 percent more to incarcerate inmates with serious mental illnesses than it costs to house typical inmates.

Calls to HPD's Crisis Intervention Team, which sends specially trained officers to situations involving the mentally ill, continue to climb every year. CIT received 15,122 calls in 2007; the number rose to 25,271 calls in 2009. During a six-month period, HPD officers spent 1,106 hours dealing with only 30 mentally ill individuals.

We point to these statistics not to blame individuals with mental illness or to suggest that they are a direct danger to the community but rather to explain why slashing the limited services available to them directly affects local law enforcement's ability to do its job. Continuing to increase our reliance on emergency responders to deal with the chronic mentally ill strains our already limited resources.

We point to these statistics not to blame individuals with mental illness or to suggest that they are a direct danger to the community but rather to explain why slashing the limited services available to them directly affects local law enforcement's ability to do its job. Continuing to increase our reliance on emergency responders to deal with the chronic mentally ill strains our already limited resources.

It also continues to criminalize mental illness, something that benefits no one and negatively affects all of us, whether we are the individuals living with a mental illness, their loved ones, or the taxpayers footing the increasing bill to provide expensive and repeated crisis treatment in our local emergency rooms, jails and state prisons.

The significant cuts the Legislature made in 2003 to this same system are very much part of why we find ourselves in such a precarious situation. We hope our legislators keep this in mind as they decide how to address this important public safety issue in the coming months. Spending less in the short run will only lead to higher costs later, not only in money but also in peace of mind.

Garcia has served as Harris County sheriff since January 2009. McClelland has served as chief of the Houston Police Department since April 2010.